Accelerating Travel Expense Approvals with Automated Reimbursement Workflows

Client Overview  

Our client?is a professionally managed company with 55+ years of legacy and is one of the leading brands in the consumer durables and lighting space. Aims?to protect and make lifestyle better of consumers by providing innovate solution which given reliability of maintaining this profile as the best in the industry leader. With an unmistakable foundation as consumer durables trailblazers, their engagement remains firmly focused towards offering the highest quality yet sustainable products?to meet the demands of future generations. 

 Challenge  

Our client faced major inefficiencies in handling their travel expense claim process, which relied entirely on manual workflows. Employees submitted travel receipts in multiple formats—paper copies, digital images, and screenshots—leading to inconsistencies and verification delays. Approvals were another bottleneck. Managers had to review claims individually, resulting in time-consuming approval processes that extended the overall claim cycle and caused frustration for employees waiting for reimbursements.  

When approved, the claims were?physically typed into the company’s old ERP system. Such transfer was an error-prone process and resulted in inaccuracies?in financial records needing additional time to remediate. The painstaking manual data entry added further resource and added to the inefficiencies.  

As the company grew, it was clear the?process didn’t scale. The number of?travel claims was growing beyond the capabilities of the current system, and without investing in more resources.  

These inefficiencies affected?the organization directly. Late reimbursements had a detrimental impact on employee satisfaction, whereas?high error rates degraded data accuracy and necessitated additional cleanup work. Another operational bottleneck was the organization’s ability to?deal with increasing claim volumes, which hampered productivity. 

To overcome these challenges, the client was looking for process automation?and scalability in the solution where the same could streamline the travel expense claim process, eliminate delays, reduce errors and ultimately help the company able to scale as required. 

• Manual Receipt Submission: Employees submitted receipts?in different formats, leading to manual verification and halting the positive process. 
• Time-Consuming Approvals : Managers considered each claim, so reimbursement approvals took?time. 
• Error-Prone Data Entry: Approved claims had to be entered manually into the legacy ERP system, which?further led to inaccuracies in the financial records. 
• Lack of Scalability : As the company expanded, the volume of travel claims became unmanageable, leading to operational inefficiencies. 

Impact of the Manual Process  

• Delays in reimbursement, negatively affecting employee satisfaction.  

• High Error Rates because of manual data entry and?verification.  

• Limited Capacity to process increasing claim volumes efficiently.  

These issues underscored the need for an automated, scalable solution to streamline the travel expense claim process.  

Solution  

We implemented an advanced end-to-end automation solution which included the use?of Power Apps, AI Builder, and Microsoft Power Automate RPA to combat the inefficiencies in the employee travel expense claim process. The use of this solution allowed converting the manual workflow into an?automated process that was efficient, required fewer efforts, was more accurate, and was scalable. 

The process started with a centralized submission?of these expenses using PowerApps based canvas app. Workers entered their travel bills, like?hotel invoices or payment receipts, into an expense tracker built using Power Apps. It effectively simplified the submission and organizational process of all expense-related data by having it in one single location that was?accessible to all parties involved. 

When bills were uploaded, Power automate and AI Builder pulled out key information such as?the transaction amount, date, and vendor name. The AI-first ability of this aspect removed the wordy process of entering and verifying data manually, leading to error-free and repeatable data capture,?saving a lot of time. 

Then extracted data was submitted directly to the appropriate manager for approval?using an automated notification system. Claims could be reviewed and approved in the app by managers, resulting?in dramatically faster processing times. This automated approval workflow eliminated delays and bottlenecks?in claim review. 

Approved claims were automatically enrolled into?the company’s on-premises ERP system using Microsoft Power Automate RPA. The integration allowed?approved claims to be automatically captured in the ERP system, eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring consistency of data across platforms. 

1. Centralized Expense Submission via Power Apps: Employees upload travel bills, such as hotel invoices or payment screenshots, into a Power Apps-based expense tracker. The system ensures all data is centrally managed and easily accessible for processing.  

1. AI-Powered Data Extraction: AI Builder extracts relevant details from uploaded receipts, such as transaction amounts, dates, and vendor names.  This eliminates manual verification and ensures accurate data capture.  
2. Automated Manager Approval : Extracted details are sent directly to the employee’s manager for approval through an automated notification system.  Managers can review and approve claims within the app, significantly speeding up the process.  
3. Seamless ERP Integration: Microsoft RPA automated the transfer of approved claims to the company’s on-premises ERP system. All the approved claims were recorded correctly because there was no manual data?entry which also eliminated the risk of human error. 
4. Scalability and Flexibility: Scalable solution which can manage growing claim volumes effortlessly, enabling the?organization to grow.   

Results  

The Power Automate RPA Implementation Services for the automated travel expense claims?solution improved efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. 

1. Dramatic Reduction in Manual Effort: Manual claim type took an hour to process; this was reduced to 1 minute with automation, freeing?employees to work on higher-value activities. 
2. Accelerated Processing Times: Claims now take 75% of the time to process, speeding up?reimbursement overall and improving employee satisfaction. 
3. Improved Accuracy and Reliability: This allowed us to reduce our error rate from ~10% to < 3% and ensured that claims were processed correctly and that data capture?was accurate and accurate. 
4. Seamless Scalability: The system seamlessly scales with increasing claim volumes, allowing the process to remain fast and effective even as the firm?grows.  
5. Enhanced Employee Experience: Quicker approvals?and reimbursements led to increased employee loyalty and trust in the organization’s processes. 

Key Performance Improvements: 

Tools Used 

Power Automate Cloud, Power Automate Desktop, Sharepoint online, Dynamics 365, PDF, Power Automate AI builder and PowerApps